The Probability of Miracles

October 31, 2011
Wunder gracefully balances comedy and tragedy in this debut novel about jaded 16-year-old Campbell, who is battling terminal cancer. After five years of treatment, her doctor tells her, “Science is not enough this time.... What you need is a miracle.” Though no-nonsense Campbell scorns the idea of miracles, her mother and younger sister refuse to give up, and her mother relocates them from their
Disney-centric life in Florida to Promise, Maine—a hard-to-find town reputed to have mystical healing powers. As Cam fulfills her “Flamingo List” (her version of a bucket list), which includes such goals as “Have my heart broken by an asshole” and “Experiment with petty shoplifting,” she confronts unexpected joys and disappointments and abandons some of her defenses and detachment. Wunder creates a large, memorable supporting cast to bolster Cam, including her friend and fellow cancer patient, Lily; love interest Asher; and unconventional family. The surreal proceedings—along with some potential miracles, depending on one’s belief in such things—explore the subjects of death and life with sensitively honed humor, examining what it means to live. Ages 14–up. (Dec.)■

Starred review from October 15, 2011
Faced with death, one teen discovers life in this bittersweet debut. Despite growing up in Disney World with parents who performed in the "Spirit of Aloha" at the Polynesian Hotel, cynical and loner Campbell Cooper (an Italian-Samoan–American) gave up on magic after her parents divorced, her father died and she developed neuroblastoma (a cancer with low survival rates in adolescence). Having exhausted Western medicine, her single mother suggests spending the summer after Cam's graduation in Promise, Maine, a hidden town (with a secret entrance off of the Dunkin' Donuts at Exit 33) known to have mysterious healing powers. While Cam's mother and younger sister are awed by such anomalies as flamingos, snow in July and purple dandelions, the teen prepares for the inevitable by suppressing her wishes. But as she begins an unexpected relationship with Asher, whose family founded the town and thus feels obligated to stay so the magic won't leave with him, she realizes the true meaning of friendship, family, love, living in the moment--and yes, even miracles. Exploring both sides of Cam's heritage, the story unfolds through narration as beautiful as the sun's daily "everlasting gobstopper descent behind the lighthouse." Irreverent humor, quirky small-town charm and surprises along the way help readers brace themselves for the tearjerker ending. Fans of Gayle Forman's If I Stay (2009) and others will find hope and laughs amid tragedy. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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Starred review from December 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-High school senior Cam needs a miracle. She has been battling cancer for seven years and learns during spring semester that there is nothing left to do-no treatment is going to help. Not willing to admit defeat, Cam's mother drags her and her sister to Promise, ME, for the summer. Miracles are supposedly regular occurrences in the town, according to her mother's friend from yoga. Cynical, sarcastic, matter-of-fact Cam is not excited about leaving Florida and Disney World where her family has been involved in the entertainment business, performing nightly Samoan-heritage dances. But she goes along to humor her mother, and on the way there visits her friend Lily, a cancer-patient comrade whom she's known for years. Miracles or not, Cam really is dying. Nonetheless, during the summer she works as a vet's assistant, steals a donkey, meets lovely Asher, and manages to accomplish everything on her Flamingo List of the things she wants to do before she dies, which include cow-tipping, losing her virginity, and having an awkward moment with her best friend's boyfriend, among other things. This is not your typical teenage fatal disease, let's-make-the-most-of-my-last-summer novel. Rather it is a witty, clever, meaningful, kind of kooky life-sometimes-stinks-but-it's-all-we-have tour de force.-Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn, NY

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2011
Grades 7-12 Campbell Cooper is 16 years old, and that's about as many years as she's getting. Cam has spent the last seven years on the roller-coaster ride called cancer, and her latest tests show that the ride is heading downhill fast. Her indomitable mother isn't ready to give up, so she packs up Cam and her younger daughter, Perry, and heads to Promise, Maine, a spot that's known for its miracles. There are also things the Florida-raised Cam wants to do on her flamingo list. She loses her virginity and she loses her heart, though not in that order and not to the same person. And Cam does find a miracle there, but not the one she is hoping for. Wunder, a first novelist, provides a strong voice for her characters, especially Cam, whose finely honed sense of irony is what carries herand readersalong. The depth of Cam's illness is not always felt (she often has more energy than one might think possible), but then again this strong debut is as much about living as it is about dying.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)